Homicide

The first good night's sleep in years for the daughter of a murdered couple came the night Florida executed her parents' killer earlier this month, she says in a new interview.“There’s a weight that’s been lifted off of us,” said Maranda Malnory, 29, of Cape Coral, in a phone conversation from her home. “We can move forward. We’re never going to move past it, but it’s not looming there all the time.”Malnory, 29, was less than one month away from her 2nd birthday when James Ford murdered her parents, Greg and Kim Malnory, in rural Charlotte County in southwest Florida. Malnory was left to the elements in a car seat in her father’s blue pickup after her parents’ murders, and police found her and her parents’ bodies the next morning.

With inmate James Ford scheduled to be put to death Feb. 13, a Charlotte County circuit judge Thursday rejected an argument that the execution should be blocked because Ford had the mental and developmental age of a 14-year-old when he murdered a couple in 1997.The 22-page ruling by Circuit Judge Lisa Porter could be the first in a series of decisions as Ford’s attorneys try to prevent the execution. Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant on Jan. 10.

The January 2019 killing took place as the Fort Myers Beach library director opened the building to prepare for a book sale.

Robert “Bobbie” Ronald Soden was roughly 30 years old the last time anyone saw him. On Tuesday, his remains were identified as one of the eight discovered in an East Fort Myers field in 2007 using DNA and other techniques.

Former Tennessee nurse RaDonda Vaught was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult for giving a patient the wrong medication. Vaught now faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, and some nurses believe the case sets a worrisome precedent for the criminalization of medical mistakes.

The 20th Judicial circuit of the State Attorney’s office in Florida is shifting personnel to add to its homicide unit. Covering Charlotte, Lee, Collier,…

The new chief of the Fort Myers Police Department, Derrick Diggs, led the first of several community engagement sessions Thursday that are being touted by…